


3 times Tony lied to Peter

by deebainwonderland



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 10:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19424425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deebainwonderland/pseuds/deebainwonderland
Summary: and one time he told the truth.





	3 times Tony lied to Peter

**Author's Note:**

> Not Endgame compliant. Basically, Tony survived Endgame.

  1. **“I’m fine, kid."**



Tony clawed his way out of the nightmare, breath lodged so far down in his throat that is took several desperate moments for it to burst out from his mouth. More often than not, Tony was fully aware during his dreams but unable to change the course of events. It was like being locked in place but able to see everything around him from every perspective. He could only hold on and pray for the moment when he would wake. And people wondered why he avoided sleep like the plague. 

Tonight, however, was about the worst it ever had been. Tony could feel the ash run through his fingers as he desperately attempted to hold on. Peter’s voice echoed in his mind, his kid’s tears choking off at the end. 

Slipping out of bed as quietly as he could so as to not wake Pepper, Tony stumbled from the room. He made his way down the hallway, leaning against the wall for support. “Please, please,” he whispered to the darkness. 

It only took a few moments to reach Peter’s bedroom door. For the hundredth time, Tony was grateful that the boy lay within his walls. If Tony had his way, Peter would just move in and never leave. As it was, Peter spent every night that Tony could quietly convince him to at the Tower. 

Opening the door quietly, Tony slipped into the room. The boy who caused him so much grief and worry was sprawled on the bed, one arm dangling off. 

Sagging against the doorframe, Tony rubbed a hand across his face. What the hell is wrong with him? Driven into the room of a kid that wasn't even his because Tony had dreamed about his death for the second time that week. Sometimes, Tony wondered if he would ever stop looking at Peter Parker as if his mere existence was a damn miracle. 

“Mr. Stark?” The soft voice sounded loud in the quiet of the night. 

Blinking his eyes open, Tony looked toward the bed. Peter’s own eyes were also open, looking curiously across the room at his mentor. It amazed Tony that the kid could go from dead asleep to completely alert in about three seconds flat. 

“Sorry. I’m fine, kid,” he said in a defeated sort of way. “Go back to sleep.” 

Crocking an eyebrow, Peter sat up and patted the side of the bed. 

Tony hesitated for only a moment before giving a resigned sigh and making his way over. He sat down slowly, not looking at Peter. 

Peter scooted forward and hooked his chin over Tony’s shoulder, feeling the tension drain from his mentor as soon as they touched. 

“Want to take about it?” he asked.

Tony snorted, still not looking at his charge. “I thought I was supposed to be the adult around here.”

“Let’s be honest,” Peter said, a smile in his tired voice, “You were never the best at being an adult.” 

“Ouch, kid, that was a little harsh.”

The two sat in silence for several long moments, Peter’s head soft against Tony’s own. 

“Do you ever dream about Titan?” asked Tony, finally turning to look at Peter, his lips brushing the boy’s temple with the words. 

Peter contemplated for a long moment before answering. “Sometimes. I try not to think about it too much. I feel like…”

“What?” Tony prompted when Peter trailed off. 

“Like sometimes I’m still falling to pieces.”

For the second time that night, Tony’s breath rushed out of him like he had been punched in the stomach. His arm went up around Peter’s shoulders, practically dragging him into his lap. Peter went willing, curling up and tucking his head under his mentor’s chin. 

“But I always wake up,” he continued. “And I’m whole again.”

“Yes,” Tony managed to choke out. “You’re whole again.”

The two sat like that for a long time, curled up together and silently reminding each other that this was real and they were both awake. 

**2\. “It's just a watch.”**

Peter had greatly resembled a kid coming downstairs on Christmas morning when Tony took him down to his personal lab and set him loose on one of the old Iron Man suits. 

Grabbing little more than a wrench, Peter began to take the suit apart, pulling off each individual piece and closely inspecting it. 

Tony moved to the other side of the lab to work on his own nanotechnology project but found himself paying more attention to his charge than to the plans on the screen in front of him. 

Peter was the only person that Tony had ever meet that showed the same kind of enthusiasm and intrigue for inventing that he saw in himself. Even if Peter didn't insist on swinging around New York helping out the little guy, Tony would still be impressed by his sheer brilliance and thirst to understand the mechanics of the world around him. 

His eyes slid to the box that was sitting innocently next to the screen. Tony had been carrying the small brown box around with him for weeks, arguing incessantly with himself about what to do with it. On one hand, it was going to be a huge invasion of privacy and would certainly be a breach of the trust that he had spent months building with the boy who now shared his lab. On the other hand…

The chair screeched as Tony shoved it forcefully back. Walking swiftly over to Peter, Tony shoved his conscience far down into the pit of his stomach where it belonged.

Peter’s shining eyes swung up to meet his mentor’s as Tony approached. “Mr. Stark, this is amazing! I mean, I know that is a super old model but this circuitry is awesome. Don’t worry, I’ll put it all back together again once I find out where this wire leads.”

Tony couldn’t help the smile that twitched on his lips at the boy’s enthusiasm. He saw so much of himself in Peter. To be honest, it scared the hell out of him.

“No problem, kid. You do your thing,” Tony said, hand clutching the box tightly. “Hey, uh, I’ve got something for you. A present.” 

Peter raised an eyebrow, eyes traveling down to the box in his mentor’s hands. “It’s not my birthday.” 

Tony let out a nervous laugh. “Who says I need an excuse to spoil my intern a little bit?”

“Mr. Stark, I really don’t need anything,” Peter said, shifting uncomfortably, “I mean, you already do so much for me.”

Tony shrugged. “It’s just a little thing really. I know your old one got stolen in one of the many backpacks you’ve lost so....”

He held out the box and after a moment of hesitation, Peter reached out to take it. Studying the plain outside for a moment, he flipped the top open.

“Ohh,” breathed Peter, staring down at the beautiful watch nestled at the bottom. Beautiful dark leather stretched out at the sides of the clock face while golden hands slowly clicked around the numbers, making the barest to ticking sounds. 

“Mr. Stark, this is too much! I can’t accept this,” Peter said, eyes swinging back up to his mentor. 

Tony forced a smile onto his face and waved a breezy hand in the air. “Nonsense. It’s just a watch. You know me, I have dozens of things like this just laying around. Might as well put this one to use. Besides, maybe this will help you from being late all the time.” 

Scrunching up his nose indignantly, Peter replied, “I’m not late that often!”

“Keep telling yourself that kid,” Tony said. 

Peter looked down at the beautiful watch for another moment before carefully taking it out and clasping it around his wrist. He watched the hands move around the clock’s face and then grinned up at Tony. “Thanks, Mr. Stark. This is like, really awesome.”

Guilt crept up Tony’s throat but he shoved it back down. “No problem kid. Go on, keep tinkering.” 

Smiling shyly, Peter turned back to the partially dismantled suit, eyes flicking back and forth from his work to his new watch. 

Tony returned to his own workstation and stared down at the screen he had been working on. Complex equations swirled across it but Tony wasn’t actually seeing any of it. His eyes slid over to the boy across the room and then back to the screen in front of him.

Slowly, Tony reached out and pressed a few buttons on the screen. Stats flashed up at him and he selected one of the options. 

Watch 008. Location: Lab 1. Heart Rate: 72 bpm. Blood pressure: 110/80. 

“Hey, Mr. Stark I found out where the wire goes! This is so cool!”

Tony’s hand flashed across the screen, pulling the data screen away. He forced a smile onto his face and turned around. 

“Great job kid! Let me see.”

**3\. “Happy was busy. He doesn’t live just to drive you around, kid.”**

Tony Stark was about to die of boredom. Seriously, he was about to fall out of his chair, crack his head on the floor, and die.

Why Pepper forced him into these board meetings he would never know. After all, he had his reasons for having her run the company. Namely, so he wouldn't spend half his time trapped listening to people he couldn't care less about.

Tony was distracted from contemplating making a run for it when his phone buzzed against his leg. He surreptitiously glanced down to read the caller’s name and couldn’t resist a smile.

Standing up, Tony flashed his best billionaire smirk at the Stark Industry board members whose eyes had swung his way at the moment of movement. 

“My apologies, ladies and gentlemen,” Tony said. “But I’m afraid I have to take this. It’s an emergency.”

Of course, odds were that it wasn't, but the idea that it could be made Tony move quickly into the hallway, only partly to avoid death glares.

“Hey kid, shouldn’t you be in school right now?

“Hi Mr. Stark,” came the jovial voice of his kid and Tony instantly relaxed at the lack of fear or anxiety in the voice. “We’re having a flood day!”

It took Tony a moment to process the strange sentence. “A flood day?”

“Yeah,” Peter said, the sound of noisy teenagers in the background, “Apparently a pipe burst and now the entire third floor is flooding. So they closed the school for the rest of the week.”

Tony glanced down at his watch. It was 11:27 am on Thursday.

“Dang kid, wish I was having a flood day,” Tony snorted. 

There was a beat of silence and then Peter spoke again, this time his voice rather timid. “Well, Aunt May is working all of today and tomorrow so I was wondering…”

“Why don’t you come over?” Tony interrupted, spirits lifting. He knew the kid wouldn't want to ask. He would think he was being a nuisance. Little idiot. 

“That would be awesome!” Peter squeaked, voice high and happy.

“Great, hold tight, I’ll get Happy to come pick you up.”

“Thanks, Mr. Stark,” Peter said before hanging up the phone. 

Tony pulled his phone away from his ear to press 4 and speed dial Happy. But then he paused, looked at the closed door that led back to the blasted meeting, and then back to his phone. 

With a shrug, Tony turned on his heel and began walking towards the elevator. 

Forty minutes later, Tony pulled up in one of his less conspicuous cars to the edge of Midtown’s sidewalk. Only a moment later the back door was opening and Peter was shoving his backpack in, following right after. 

“Hi, Happy! Thanks for-- you’re not Happy.” 

“Yes, well spotted Peter,” Tony laughed, meeting the wide eyes in his rearview mirror. “Happy was busy. He doesn’t live just to drive you around, kid.”

“And I suppose you didn’t have anything else going on,” Peter laughed. 

“You know, I remember the days when you were afraid of me. Can we go back to that?”

“Sorry,” Peter replied, “That ship sailed after we literally fought aliens together.”

“Touché kid,” Tony said, pulling away from the curb. 

**1\. “I love you.”**

“It's late kid, what are you still doing up?”

Without taking his eyes from the roaring fireplace, Peter shrugged one shoulder. “I could ask you the same thing.” 

“You’re talking to the master of avoiding sleep, young Padawan,” Tony replied, sliding down on the couch next to his charge. “Besides, I asked first.”

Peter smiled despite himself. “I was just thinking about how odd it is that this is my life. I mean, if you told me two years ago that I would be spending a Saturday night in the Avengers Tower after spending the day working in the personal lab of Tony Stark, I would have laughed in your face.”

“If you had told me two years ago that I would voluntarily be spending the majority of my free time with a teenager, I would have thrown you out the nearest window,” Tony shot back. 

Peter laughed softly and leaned back. Tony automatically guided him over until he was leaning against his chest. Reaching out, Tony laced his fingers through Peter’s right hand and marveled at how small they still were. 

“I think this part would have especially freaked me out,” Peter said after a moment.

Tony was still looking at their joined hands. They both had scars lacing their fingers. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah, you’ve kind of always been my idol, in case you forgot.”

Warmth blossomed in Tony’s chest. More and more, he found himself being overwhelmed by his feelings whenever he was around this kid. The old Tony would have taken this as a sign to get as far away as possible. Now he simply tugged the kid even closer to his chest. 

“I’m surprised that hasn’t changed now that you actually know me.”

Peter snorted. “Oh, come on, you’re not that bad.”

“There may be others who disagree with you about that,” Tony replied. 

“You’re not that bad to me,” Peter clarified, turning his head to push his nose into Tony’s neck.

The two sat there for what seemed like hours, curled around each other, watching the fire. 

Peter’s breathing eventually evened out as he dozed. Tony thought he should probably move the boy to a bed but he couldn't bring himself to break the sense of contentment in the room. 

Tony tucked his own nose into Peter unruly curls. Indeed, if someone had told him a few years ago that he would end up here on the couch wrapped around this kid, he would have found the idea inexplicable. 

Yet, here he was. That in and of itself was a minor miracle. 

“I love you.” The words were pressed into Peter’s hair, soft but strong. 

Sleep was just beginning to finally take him as well when he faintly heard the whisper back. 

“Love you too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Aww, so much fluff. Please review!


End file.
